Code Lyoko Again
by Cha-Cha-Cheesecake
Summary: At Kadic, new transfer student from Japan is in for a shock as he meets the mysterious five - Jeremy, Aelita, Odd, Ulrich and Yumi. But things aren't going to get better from here. Luca Nogi is way in over his head. What does Lyoko have in store for him?
1. Enter The Pilot

Summary: Jeremy was never told about the rich family he used to live next door to before he moved eight years ago. Not even that the prestigious family housed an Alice. Now this boy has to transfer to Kadic, where things might get a bit too virtual for his liking. Luca Nogi is way in over his head. What does Lyoko have in store for him?

**A/N: This fic is rated T for Teen, due to darker themes, harsher violence, slightly more mature themes, bad language, and fake men slash. You've been warned beforehand (:**

**PS. This takes place sometime in the Second Season, so don't expect things to get extremely exciting with the whole Aelita growing wings and their outfits getting upgraded and stuff - they might, but they might not. Just warning you so you're not disappointed.**

**Code Lyoko Again**

Chapter 1 - Enter The Pilot

Jeremy sat up groggily in his bedroom, listening half-heartedly as the radio belted out a song in the charts. He stretched and climbed out of bed, running his fingers through his hair. Xana wasn't giving him any breaks to figure out an anti-virus for Aelita, and that meant the supercomputer had to stay active, risking the lives of the whole world in the process.

He sighed. And to think they were being given so much homework as well… if he had Odd's brains, he would've keeled over from the stress a long time ago.

He couldn't exactly expect the teachers to go easy on them though - they were in the eighth grade now, so studying for midterm exams were vital in order to stay average. Even Odd was beginning to study on a regular basis.

"And Xana can't even cut us some slack during exam periods," Jeremy grumbled to himself. Though the sunlight gave him a hangover feeling after pulling an all-nighter to cram in extra research hours, he couldn't deny how good the April sunshine felt on his face as it streamed in through the windows. He was beginning to enjoy life beyond the computer screen. He just wished he could share this feeling with Aelita…

His thoughts were broken in an instant as the faint sound of yelling down the corridor caught his attention.

"I'M NOT GONNA SURRENDER HIM TO YOU UNTIL YOU DO YOUR OWN DAMN HOMEWORK!"

"I'M NOT SCREWING AROUND WITH YOU, ULRICH! GIVE HIM BACK RIGHT NOW!"

Ulrich burst into Jeremy's room, holding a squirming Kiwi to his chest.

"You coulda just knocked," Jeremy said dryly, as Ulrich grabbed hold of the frantic dog.

"Help," he gasped, face breaking out in a sweat. "That damn Odd…! I woke up this morning, and d'you know what he was doing? Copying my homework, god damn it! He coulda just asked, but instead he did all this sneaking around… unforgivable!"

"So you kidnapped Kiwi," stated Jeremy, watching bemusedly as Ulrich wrestled the little dog. Ulrich gritted his teeth.

"It's not stealing when Odd is involved," he said, fuming. "He stole my homework, I stole his dog. It was a trade. Equivalent Exchange."

"You watch too much anime," Jeremy commented, pulling off his pyjama top. "It doesn't work like that. Odd copied your homework, so fine, yell at him, scream and rant until he's truly sorry he drove you to it. But don't steal Kiwi. Now you're just as bad as him."

Odd burst into the room, face bright red with fury.

"YOU GIVE HIM BACK RIGHT NOW! GIVE BACK KIWI NOW!" Odd yelled. Ulrich glared at Odd.

"No, not until you do your own homework!" Ulrich shot back. Kiwi whimpered.

"YOU SEE THAT?" Odd spluttered to Jeremy, face like a tomato. "HE'S HOLDING KIWI HOSTAGE!" Jeremy rubbed his temples.

"Why dos this soap opera have to play out in my bedroom?" he groaned. "What wouldn't I give to be in Yumi's shoes right now…" Kiwi squirmed around frantically.

"Look, Ulrich, I'll tear up the paper, get detention, do whatever! Just leave Kiwi out of this!" shouted Odd. "Can't you see how unhappy he is?"

"All right, all right, guilt me, why don't you," Ulrich snapped. He released Kiwi, who retreated to their room. "Just, never copy my homework again!"

"Oh Great God Ulrich, I humbly thank you for sparing Kiwi's life," Odd cried, clinging to his arm. Ulrich looked embarrassed.

"Um, yeah, uh, just please let go," he mumbled. Jeremy stifled a laugh.

Despite his cool and collected appearance, Ulrich really was an awkward guy at heart, and wasn't used to this kind of affection directed towards him. Unfortunately, this wasn't known by Odd, who continued nuzzling against his shoulder in an annoyingly cat-like way - probably due to his Lyoko alias.

"Aww, you're embarrassed - that's so adorable, Ulrich! I bet Yumi would fall for you in a heartbeat if you used that card!"

"Shut up! There's nothing going on between Yumi and me! Why do you keep bringing that up?"

"Aww, this is so cute~ If only I had a camera~"

"Stop joking around!"

As their one-sided argument continued, Jeremy continued to dress, all the while with a silly smile on his face. He had no idea why hearing their voices felt so good to him - this was pretty much the drill of every day. But for some reason, today they were extra comforting.

Little did he know, his world was about to fall right into the cracks.

XXX

"I can't believe this," groaned Luca Nogi for the fifth time that day. "I don't see why they decided to transfer me here! It makes no sense, this isn't a school for Alices or anything… Tell me what the Elementary School Principal had in mind, Narumi!"

Narumi focused on the road, jaw clenched.

"Luca, you know for a fact that I'm no longer one of the higher ups - not that I ever was for that matter. I'm just as low as you are."

"How reassuring," Luca said sarcastically, trying to hide the tears pricking his eyes. "And why was I the only one? What about Natsume, or Imai? This doesn't make any sense, damn it!"

"I don't have a clue why you're the one chosen to come here… But it could be something to do with the fact that you originated from France so you'd know the language."

"That doesn't make any sense, though. What's so special about Kadic Junior High School, anyway? Do they have connections with Alice Academy?" Narumi shrugged.

"I don't have a clue… But you'll soon find out, huh?" Luca shifted uncomfortably. He couldn't stop thinking about the fear he'd felt as the Elementary School Principal had called him out that day.

"_Where am I going?" Luca asked, frightened. After what had happened to Mikan Sakura, he knew he couldn't take any chances with the Elementary School Principal. He was treading on thin ice here, so he had to be careful._

"_Don't sound scared shitless, you're just going to listen to me." The Principal's voice had been cold, sending shivers down Luca's spine._

"_Then tell me what's going on!" Luca had cried, even though his presence of mind was screaming at him to stay silent. The Elementary School Principal turned around sharply and struck him across the face._

"_You do not speak to me like that!" he spat, furiously. Then he regained his composure. "You don't speak to your elders like that. Learn a little decency and respect, Nogi."_

_Luca stood up shakily. He'd been so shocked and in pain his legs had given away without him realising and he'd fell to the floor with a harsh thump. His breaths came out ragged and fast, as his heart was racing. In retrospect, he should've seen it coming. But the pain tearing through the left side of his face was enough to make anyone keel over._

"_Are you done with your pitying performance?" Sneered the Elementary School Principal. Luca nodded, swallowing. He couldn't risk answering back now._

"_Good. Now I have to make an announcement. As of next week, you will be transferring schools. I feel like your Alice is stable enough as a graduate. Therefore I am removing you from this school and sending you to Kadic Junior High School in France, where you will be placed in the eighth grade classes. Do well there, otherwise you won't even be there to protect Natsume the next time I decide to lay my hands on him."_

_Luca stared for what seemed like an eternity._

"…_I'm transferring schools?" He cried. "Wh… Why? This isn't right, I'm just a kid! Why would you bother going through all this trouble to transfer me?"_

"_My decision is final. Pack your things. We'll be leaving on Monday."_

Luca's head jerked up as the car slowed to a halt. Narumi turned around.

"You hanging tough there, soldier? We're here now." Luca bit his lip and unstrapped his seatbelt. It still felt weird to think they were in the place he called home so long ago. His mothering country. His origin.

As he climbed out of the car, he stared up at the school's walls. It looked quite old, but fancy too. He hoped the kids weren't going to be stuck up. That was the last thing he needed at a time like this.

"What does he expect me to do?" Luca asked, his face falling. "I have no idea what he wants from me." Narumi patted his shoulder. If this world hadn't fallen out of shape, Luca would've shrank away from that hand, felt creeped out, awkward. Now it was one of the most comforting things in the world.

"Don't worry, Luca. No matter what happens… If he touches anyone, and I mean anyone… I won't forgive him for that. Especially if it's you, or Natsume, or anyone else in Class B. You're all my pride, and my joy. I can't thank you enough for all you've done to hold the class together… But for now, Luca, you can't do anything but your best."

"But what if my best isn't enough?" Luca cried, clenching his fists. "What if he's not happy with what I do? What if he tries to hurt Natsume? I can't just sit around like this, I need to be with Natsume, to protect him…!"

"You're trying, Luca. I'm sure Natsume would want you, at least, to try and live this new life normally." Narumi let his arm fall to his side. "Now, lets go and meet the principal. I'm sure you'll want to settle in right away." Before Luca had a chance to protest, Narumi pushed him in through the gates and marched him through the courtyard.

Luca glanced around nervously. Everyone was in class, which meant that the whole yard was empty. He dreaded to think what it would be like when lunch break began.

He sighed deeply and tried to slow his heart race. If he was going to make a good impression on this principal, he didn't want to come clammy-handed.

XXX

Jeremy frowned, ignoring Miss Hertz as she droned on about amplitude - he'd heard it all before. For the moment, it seemed, Xana had been totally quiet… oddly quiet. It was strange to think that instead of enjoying this peace, he was stressing out over it, but he couldn't place his finger on why he thought today would be the time Xana would strike.

Beside him, he watched as Odd was drawing a complicated and detailed picture of a knarled tree and bent over to get a closer look. Then he sighed half-heartedly. Underneath the tree were Yumi and Ulrich, holding hands and napping in the sun. He smiled inwardly.

They were going to kill him for that.

"Hey, Odd," he whispered. Odd looked up from his masterpiece.

"What's up?" Odd asked. Jeremy leaned over.

"I was thinking about your… Precognition." Odd blinked.

"My what now?" Jeremy sighed.

"Precognition, you know… Your "Future-Flashes"?" Odd sat up excitedly, his mushy drawing suddenly forgotten.

"Oh, yeah? I miss those little guys, coming and going like they owned the place… what about it?"

"I'm thinking of bringing it back… I was wrong to say that they were useless, because they're not. They helped you out quite a few times. And… I think it's high time I make an upgraded version."

"That's awesome!" Odd exclaimed. "Does that mean I'll be able to bring on the Future-Flashes?"

"At will? Sure, if you want, I'll try," Jeremy said. "I'll work on making it more reliable too, so that you can understand more about what's going on in the future."

"Excuse me," Miss Hertz snapped. "Is my class really so boring you two boys feel like you can talk through it?"

"N-No, Ma'am," Jeremy said quickly. "W-We're sorry."

After a distraught look, she spun on her heels and continued writing on the board. The two breathed a sigh of relief.

After a brief end to their conversation Odd went back to his drawing, while Jeremy stared out of the window. As he was drifting off into an uneasy daydream, something caught his eye. Or rather, someone.

He watched intently as a man, accompanied by a boy their age, trudged along the path in the direction of the principal's office. A new student, he supposed - but this only made him more uneasy.

Why… Why did he feel such a strange wave of nostalgia as the boy crossed the courtyard?

XXX

"I hope you will like your new school, Luca Nogi," the principal said, smiling pleasantly. "You are fluent in French, it seems - very good. I'm impressed. I hope you find it easy to communicate with your fellow classmates, and if you have any problems you know you can always come to me."

Luca nodded, feeling conflicted. Part of him was relieved that the principal was so nice - way more friendly then the ones at Alice Academy. But part of him also knew that this was the easy bit. It was the actual "making friends" part that was going to be hard.

He'd already been the new kid once, but that was okay, because Natsume was there, and they understood each other. Now, Luca had no one.

"Now, I'll be leaving… Thank you for everything, Sir," Narumi said politely, standing up. Luca looked up quickly.

"You're leaving?" he asked. His voice sounded sad and pathetic, and he hated himself for sounding so weak. Narumi nodded.

"I'm afraid so. But don't worry, Luca. I'll come back soon. I'll find the money somewhere. For now, hang in there. You'll be fine."

Luca doubted that things would be fine, but he knew there was no point in arguing. He fingered his new silver cell phone in his pocket - a parting gift from Class B snuck into the academy from outside the gates. He bit his lip. He wanted to be there so badly.

"Right, well, if you'll excuse me…" Narumi gave one last sad wave before shutting the door behind him.

Luca was alone.

"…Now, Luca, if you don't mind… please allow me to show you to your room." The principal stood up and left the room, holding the door open for Luca to follow him through. Luca trailed after him miserably, holding his luggage.

"This will be your room," he said, motioning to a door in front of them. "You'll be sharing your room with another student in your class, Jeremy Belpois. He's an exceptionally bright boy, so if you run into any trouble you can always talk to him. This period is almost over, so lunch will start in ten minutes. Try and get settled down then, and I'm sure Jeremy won't mind taking you under his wing until you make some friends."

Luca nodded, not actually soaking up much of the information. He held his new cell phone tightly, not wanting to let go.

"Natsume… if you were here right now… what would you want me to do?"

XXX

Jeremy packed up his books.

"Where are you heading now?" asked Odd.

"I'm going back to my room for a bit to check Xana hasn't launched an attack. Wanna come with me?" he asked, smiling. Odd shook his head.

"No offence or anything, Einstein, but in case you didn't notice, it's lunch now, and I, like most people, hafta eat. It's meatballs today."

"Okay, okay. Save a seat for me at lunch, okay?"

"Will do!" Odd rushed off. Ulrich grinned.

"He never changes, does he?" he said. Jeremy shook his head, smiling.

"Change is a bit weird sometimes. Odd is the type that shouldn't change, otherwise he'd turn them crazy."

"I'll come with you to your room if you want," Ulrich suggested. Jeremy nodded.

"Yeah, please."

As they approached the room, they heard something. It sounded like… a guy.

"Natsume… if you were here right now… what would you want me to do?"

"Who's that?" whispered Ulrich. "And is he speaking Japanese?"

"No idea. You reckon it could be Yumi's little brother?" asked Jeremy. Ulrich shook his head.

"Not unless Hiroki's aged overnight." They opened the door. A head shot up, startled. He was blonde, with crystal blue eyes, fair skin, and wearing a black blazer, white shirt and blue checked trousers.

"…Who're you?" Jeremy asked, eyes wide with surprise. The boy rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed.

"Um… My name's Luca Nogi. I'm new and everything, so… Well, you get the picture. I'm your new roommate."

Ulrich and Jeremy stared.

"N-New roommate?" he gasped. "No one told me about this!"

"Well it's not like I'm exactly thrilled to return to France either," Luca snapped, frowning. "I hate being so far away from Japan. I can't believe he thought my Alice was stable… What was he thinking?" he murmured to himself. Jeremy looked up.

"Did you say, Alice?" he asked. Luca hesitated, before nodding.

"Um… Yeah, I did. Er, well, the thing is-" At that moment, Kiwi burst into the room, and Luca's face softened.

"D-D-Darling… Ah, mon belle, mon belle, ça va?" He crouched down next to Kiwi and pulled him into a warm embrace.

"Um… Is this guy… someone to be reckoned with?" murmured Ulrich, eyes wide with amazement.

"I-It's hard to say," whispered Jeremy. Suddenly the illusion ended and Luca grabbed a hold of himself. Kiwi slowly trotted off, unsure of why he had the sudden urge to lick the boy's face. Luca buried his head in his hands.

"Argh, I'm such a moron… Why did I let myself get so unstable…?" He looked up at Ulrich and Jeremy miserably. "Well, I guess there's no point hiding it anymore. I have the Animal Pheromone Alice. Which, as you can tell, attracts animals. I thought I would be safe seeing as pets aren't allowed here, but…?"

"That was Kiwi. He's a dog belonging to our friend Odd." Jeremy stared in awe. "So you really are an Alice?" Luca nodded.

"Wait up - what's an Alice?" asked Ulrich. Jeremy turned to face him.

"It's a person born with a special ability that defies human laws - it's like special powers. Scientists are still trying to figure out why Alices occur and how people can obtain or destroy them, but they haven't been too successful. I've always wondered about it. Even though most cases are from Japan, did you know France has a high Alice rate too?"

"Well, no, seeing as I didn't even know what an Alice was," pointed out Ulrich. He pointed at Luca. "So lemme get this straight, this guy has an Alice that makes animals fall in love with him? That's kinda weird."

"You think I don't know that?" growled Luca. "Look, I'm just gonna say this once. My Alice is a total freak show. Therefore, I don't want anyone hearing about it. It'd totally freak them out, and make my life a living hell. Do you see why I wanna keep it quiet?"

"We understand… We won't tell a soul," Jeremy promised. "Now, Luca… what do you say we all head down to lunch?"

XXX

Odd was eating his third helping when Ulrich and Jeremy walked in, Luca following close behind. He waved to them, then stopped as he saw Luca. Luca noticed this and flushed red.

"Hey, guys. Who's the blondie?"

"You're blonde too, you know," Ulrich pointed out. "This is Luca Nogi. A transfer student from Japan."

"Ooh, a fellow foreigner, huh?" Odd grinned. "Nice t'meetcha! Odd Della Robbia's the name!" Luca blinked.

"F-Fellow foreigner?"

"Odd's Italian," Jeremy said quickly. Odd nodded, grinning.

"Oh, sweet, sweet Italy," he said dreamily, before tucking into his meatballs once more. "So, you in our class? How do you know Jeremy, anyway?"

"I'm his new roommate," Luca said quickly. Odd leaned towards Ulrich.

"Has he seen Jeremy's hook-up to the supercomputer?" Odd whispered. Ulrich shook his head.

"Not as far as I know. He'd only been there about ten minutes or something when we came in."

"That's a relief. I was worried we'd have to do explaining."

"I can't imagine you seriously worrying about anything," Ulrich replied, exasperated. Odd shrugged, popping a meatball in his mouth.

"Think that way then, if it floats your boat," he said simply. Luca went to pick up a lunch tray.

"Okay, so he knows nothing about Lyoko. That's good. Say, any of you two seen Yumi?" Ulrich shook his head.

"She's probably in the library or something. She has exams too, you know."

"How could I not when you're reminding me all the time?" Odd replied. "Honestly, Ulrich, how many times are you gonna repeat yourself? Are you on a tape recording or something?"

"Cut it out," Aelita said, wandering over to them. She had a small smile on her face. "Who's the new boy?"

"His name's Luca Nogi," Jeremy said. "He's a transfer student from Japan, and he's my new roommate."

"Oh, how exciting," she grinned. "I can't wait to talk to him!"

"Well, he's not feeling all that sociable right now," Jeremy said, so Aelita's feelings wouldn't get hurt if he was cold towards her. "He's not settled in properly yet, so we should probably give him some space."

"Okay, I understand." She sat down next to Jeremy with her lunch tray and began pushing her food around her plate like a little kid.

"Hey, Aelita, if you're not gonna finish those potatoes off, d'you mind if I have them?" Odd asked hungrily. Jeremy threw him a look.

"Let her finish off her food, Odd. She's barely even started."

"Fine," he said sulkily. Then he remembered something and sat straight. "Hey, Einstein, about Precognition-"

"What's that?" asked Ulrich.

"It's my Future-Flashing power," Odd grinned. "Jeremy's been talkin' about bringing it back!"

"Really?" Ulrich looked surprised. "I thought you didn't like that power. That's why you got rid of it, right?"

"I've decided to try and revive it," Jeremy said. Determination flashed in his eyes. "Because it's actually really useful, we just didn't need it back then."

"Like how?" Ulrich asked. Odd glared at Ulrich.

"Like it was awesome, very much like myself," he retorted. Ulrich rolled his eyes.

"It could be used to predict danger in the near future, or even Xana attacks," Jeremy said seriously. Odd gasped.

"I could predict Xana attacks?" Jeremy nodded.

"It'd take serious concentration, and I still don't know what the outcome might be. With that much power, it might affect your health, or your mood. I just don't know yet cause I haven't had a chance to work on developing the ability."

"You're worrying too much," Odd said breezily, stealing a meatball off of Aelita's plate. "I'm sure everything will be just dandy by the end of the day."

As he finished his sentence, Luca walked over to their table with a tray of food and sat down opposite Aelita, who smiled.

"It's nice to meet you," she said. "My name's Aelita. What's yours?"

"U-Um… Luca Nogi," he said, blushing. Jeremy frowned.

"Uh-oh. I sense jealousy on the horizon," grinned Odd, pointing out Jeremy's sour expression.

"Wh-What is this?" Luca asked, prodding the meatball with his fork. Odd stared in horror.

"It's a meatball, my friend! A part of Italian culture, meatballs! I'll let you off for today because you're from Japan, but really, don't they have meatballs in Japan? You'd think they would!" As Odd continued to rant about his mothering country, Luca stared down at his tray of food and pushed it around, not feeling very hungry. He wished Natsume was here. He was so different to them all.

He was calm and cool and Luca's best friend. They were clowns that joked around and didn't take much seriously who he barely knew. But for some reason, he felt comfort, for the first time since Narumi left, as he watched them laugh and joke about the Italian boy's culture.

He let a small smile play on his lips, before taking a bite of his first dinner at Kadic Junior High.

It wasn't so bad, after all.

XXX

Jeremy felt a familiar feeling of uneasy stabbing in his gut as he sat in History, spacing out. He just had to check to see if Xana had launched an attack. He just had to.

Careful not to disturb the lesson he was in, he reached for his laptop and slowly opened it up.

Just as he suspected.

A tower had been activated.

He nudged Odd, who was sat next to him, continuing his detailed drawing of Yumi and Ulrich.

"Odd," Jeremy hissed. "A tower's been activated." Odd groaned.

"At this rate, I'll never finish this picture off, will I?" he complained. "I've been working on it for almost a week!"

"We need to get out of here," Jeremy murmured to Odd. "How're we gonna get out of this?" Odd let a grin creep over his face.

_Leave it to me_, he mouthed. He then bent over and made vomiting noises into his schoolbag. The teacher looked up, startled. Odd was a convincing vomiter at the best of times.

"Jeremy, is Odd… throwing up?" Jeremy nodded, also surprised by the convincing retching noises.

"Y-Yes… Should I take him to the infirmary?" Jeremy asked. The teacher nodded.

"Come back once you've handed him over to the nurse," their teacher warned.

"Okay," Jeremy said. When Odd's face emerged from the bag, he had drool on his chin and his face was white. Jeremy glanced at Ulrich, who's face was alarmed. _He really thought Odd had been sick_, Jeremy thought with a grin. He let his gaze wander over to Luca, who was sat next to Aelita for that lesson. She had concern written all over her face, and Luca looked shocked. He probably believed it too, after seeing how much Odd had eaten at lunch.

With one of Odd's arms over his shoulder, Jeremy staggered out into the corridor. Odd grinned and wiped the drool from his chin.

"Pretty convincing stuff I had there, huh?" he joked. Jeremy nodded.

"Even Ulrich thought you'd really puked then," he said. Odd shrugged.

"Hey, what can I say? I have skills. Now lets head over to the factory quickly, before Xana gets too far ahead of the game." They began to run into the woods, careful to avoid the watchful eye of teachers like Jim lurking around.

"We don't have much time. As soon as I get down there, go to the scanner room and get ready to be de-virtualized. I'll talk to you when I get to the supercomputer, so be ready in the scanner."

"Okay, captain," he grinned, grabbing his skateboard. Jeremy unfolded his scooter and followed Odd down the tunnels.

Once he arrived in front of the supercomputer, Jeremy sat down and turned on the main power source.

"Odd, you ready?" Jeremy asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be, Einstein," came his chirpy reply. Jeremy started the de-virtualisation program.

"Transfer - Odd." The scanner sprung to life.

"Scanner - Odd." Jeremy scanned Odd's body.

"Virtualisation!"

Odd was thrown onto the dusty terrain of the Desert Sector. Shaking his head, he looked around only to realise something.

"Hey, Einstein. We forgot Aelita," he pointed out. Jeremy nodded.

"I realised on the way to the factory. For now, take cover, cause you'll need those life points when she arrives. I'll call her cell."

He rang her number. Almost immediately she picked up.

"Hey, Jeremy. How's Odd doing?"

"He faked the whole thing," Jeremy said quickly. "Xana launched an attack. A tower was activated so we used that to get out of the classroom. Could you drop by and de-activate the tower?"

"Sure thing. I'll be on my way."

XXX

Luca watched as Aelita fished her cell phone out of her bag, worried. She pressed it to her ear.

"Hey Jeremy. How's Odd doing?" Luca frowned. That had really startled him when the short boy had started retching into his bag.

Aelita nodded, although Luca was pretty sure Jeremy couldn't tell she was nodding.

"Sure thing. I'll be on my way." She stood up. "Sir, I don't feel well… can I go to the infirmary?" The teacher frowned.

"Is this some kind of virus going round? Well, okay. Would you like someone to go with you?"

"I'll take her!" Ulrich and Luca said in union.

"V-Very well. You can both accompany her. But I want you back as soon as possible."

"Okay." Aelita looked puzzled. The second they left the room, Ulrich turned to Luca.

"What the hell are you doing? This isn't a playground!"

"I should be asking you that! Give me one good reason why you should be allowed to just leave the lesson and I'm not!"

"Because we're actually doing something important!"

"Just shut up, both of you," Aelita said sharply. "Lets get to the factory. You too, Luca," she added as he began to walk away.

"Are you serious?" hissed Ulrich. "We haven't even known this guy a day!"

"We might need back up. There's no guarantee we'll be able to get Yumi out of classes, and we might have to seriously rely on him. Plus," she smiled, "he's part of our group now. He hung around with us, and we let him in more then we do with just normal classmates. He's our friend now. One of us."

"…Fine, fine, just lets get on with this, before Odd gets de-virtualized before we even arrive."

Aelita nodded and ran towards the woods, Luca and Ulrich in tow. Before long, they reached the tunnel leading down to the pipes connecting the school to the factory.

"Wh-What this hell… is this?" Luca looked bewildered as Aelita opened up the tunnel and began to climb down the sub-style rungs. Aelita bit her lip.

"You wouldn't believe us if we tried to tell you. You'll see for yourself if you just come down too." Uncertainly, Luca began to climb down the stairs. Ulrich followed after, pulling the lid down so not to attract attention.

"Woah!" Luca stared. They were in… a tunnel?

"No time to explain. Lets get going."

XXX

Jeremy looked up as they appeared from the elevator and sighed in relief.

"Has Odd lost any life points yet?" Ulrich asked.

"Aww! You really _do_ care~" came Odd's voice from the supercomputer. Ulrich rolled his eyes.

Luca stared at the room in complete shock. It was like the labs at Alice Academy. There was a seat around a huge chunk of machinery he could only assume was the source of their problems, from the way everyone was staring at it in concern. The whole room had an artificially-lit glow to it.

"You guys need to get to the scanner room- h-hey, what's Luca doing here?" Jeremy looked puzzled.

"He followed us here… or rather, Aelita invited him." Ulrich pointed to the pink-haired girl, who had a rather defensive look on her face.

"He wanted to know what was going on, and he's your roommate, Jeremy! He'll find out everything sooner or later!"

"Well, given the current situation, I'd probably choose later," Ulrich snapped. "But now you've already brought him here, I guess we're gonna have to go on anyway."

"Right. We don't have any time to lose… Go to Lyoko now, I'll start up the scanning process."

"Whatever you say," Aelita said, heading towards the scanner room. "Come on, Ulrich."

Ulrich followed her into the elevator.

"Aelita… Is what we're doing really the right thing? We don't know this guy very well. What if he reveals everything?"

"…I can tell he won't. I have a good judge of character, Ulrich, and right now every fibre of my being is saying we can trust him." She watched him with determined eyes. "Please believe me."

Ulrich held her gaze for several long seconds.

"…Fine. I'll believe you for now. But don't think I agree with any of this until I see for myself what kind of guy this Luca Nogi really is."

XXX

"Uh, Jeremy… How much longer until the others arrive?" Odd groaned. "Cause, well, they're practically surrounding me here, and I don't think I'll have any ammo left if I start shooting my laser arrows now!"

"Just hang on a moment," Jeremy pleaded. "They'll be here any moment now."

"You're damn right they're gonna be here any moment now, cause if not, I'm gonna have something to say about tha-" He was cut off when a blok began to shoot at him, only narrowly missing his head.

"Er, Jeremy… I hate to rush you and all, but I don't think these guys are gonna wait any longer… Could you hurry it _up_ please?"

"Odd, I'm doing the best I can," Jeremy said quickly. "Dear god, guys, are you ready yet?"

"Come on, Jeremy," Aelita's voice came, surprisingly calm. "Just scan us. We're ready and in the scanners."

"Right… Okay…" Jeremy started up the scanning process as Luca stared at the screen.

"The… The guy from before… His voice is coming out of the computer," he said, eyes fixated on the supercomputer.

"Uh, right… About that," Jeremy said, distracted. "It's really hard to explain, but-"

"Wait a sec, guy from before?" Odd complained. "Great. The new dude doesn't even know my name."

"Well, you don't seem to know mine either," retorted Luca.

"Can we save this for another time?" Jeremy pleaded, breaking up the feud. "Transfer, Aelita. Transfer, Ulrich."

Their Lyoko forms materialized on the screen.

"H-How are you doing that? Is this some kind of creepy Invention Alice at work?" cried Luca, confused. Jeremy shook his head.

"I wish. But it's not. It's actually a _really _long story that I'd prefer to tell you once this fiasco's over…" He turned back to the screen. "Scanner, Aelita. Scanner, Ulrich."

"This isn't real… This is all insane." Luca stared in disbelief as the two were materialised on Lyoko.

"It's about time," said Odd as they dropped to the floor. "Honestly, you guys, you sure take your time with these kinda things!"

"Quit your complaining," Ulrich said bluntly. "We need to de-activate the tower before Xana affects Earth in one way or another."

"…Fufufu… And to think I used to think you cared about my well-being, Ulrich," came the crocodile-tearing voice of Odd.

"Come on, we don't have much time," Aelita said urgently. "We need to get to the tower. Jeremy, can you send us the co-ordinates?"

"Uh… yeah…" Jeremy searched the location. "…Aha. Head south from here. You guys should be able to see it easily if you keep heading south. It'll come into view if you just keep walking."

"Sounds easy enough… We'll have to finish off these bloks first though," Odd said, smiling grimly.

"You ready, Odd?" asked Ulrich through gritted teeth.

"As ready as I'll ever be," he replied. "Aelita, take cover! Things are about to get real ugly."

Aelita ran to duck behind a sand bank.

It all seemed to happen so fast then. Lasers were fired, yells echoed round the skies, as Odd and Ulrich fought for Aelita's sake against the bloks.

"Triplicate!" Ulrich triplicated and began to fend off three bloks at once, while Odd dodged in between lasers, determined to tire the offending blok out, or at least confuse it so he could take the upper hand.

"Good going, Ulrich!" Odd yelled as two of the three bloks were destroyed.

"Hehe, thanks," he called back, facing the third. Odd jumped high enough in the air so he could get a full view of the blok he was after.

_Perfect. I have you right where I want you._

"Laser Arrow!" Odd shouted, shooting a single arrow from his clenched cat fist.

The blok stood still for a moment, bewildered, before completely exploding.

"And that's how you do it Lyoko style," grinned Odd, dusting off his paws.

"You're such a show-off," Ulrich commented.

"Ya jealous?" grinned Odd. Ulrich opened his mouth to say something - and suddenly disappeared.

"What happened to Ulrich?" cried Aelita.

"Crap, he's been de-virtualized," muttered Odd.

"ODD, LOOK OUT!" she shrieked. Odd turned around just in time to dodge a laser aimed at him speedier then light.

"Krabs, just great," he groaned. "Jeremy, you could've warned me there was a Krab coming!"

"It didn't show up on my scanner! Look, Odd, there's no way you'll be able to take it down on your own. Take cover with Aelita - I'm gonna send Luca down."

"What! Are you crazy? With all due respect, Einstein, you'd have to be nuts to let the new guy into Lyoko!"

"Well you guys need help. What other choice do we have? We can't get Yumi, her parents said so themselves that she can't afford to skip out on any more classes! You can't finish one of those things off by yourself, that's like a death wish!"

"You think I don't know that?" snapped Odd. "Look, Jeremy, I know you like this Luca guy, but he isn't going to help at all on this mission! If you're gonna let him in the group, we've gotta give him training and get him used to fighting!"

"You think I don't know how to fight?" Luca yelled. "I have fought for my life, more times then you could count! I've been in a lot of dangerous positions you guys couldn't even imagine! So don't tell _me_ how to fight!"

After an awkward moment of silence passed, Odd finally spoke.

"Okay, we have no idea how many rocky situations you've been put in. But this isn't the same kinda fighting. It isn't guns, or fists, or feet or knees or anything else you can hit or injure with. These are giant monsters that zap you with lasers. Are you up to that?"

"Are you saying I'm chicken? You need help… I don't like using what strength I do have to hurt others. But this is a different story. They're virtual! They can't feel a thing!"

As the elevator opened up and Ulrich emerged, Luca ran past and pressed the button to proceed down to the scanner room.

"What was that all about?" Ulrich asked.

"The new guy just lost his marbles," Odd remarked. "Now, Jeremy, if you don't mind, until Luca gets here I'm gonna dance with the Krab."

"Odd, wait!"

XXX

The elevator doors opened and Luca suddenly found himself in a room similar to one he'd see in a horror show, or a pokémon movie. There were pods all around that he could only assume were the scanners, and wires trailing all over the floors. Taking a deep breath, he entered the nearest scanner.

"O-Okay… Do the scanning thingy. I'm ready."

"Right, okay then, Luca… Now, don't worry. It'll take some getting used to, but we know what we're doing-"

"Can you give me the pep talk later? Odd needs me right now," Luca said quickly.

"Whaddya know… The kid does know my name this time," grinned Odd.

"And if you have any class, you'll remember mine," Luca retorted.

"Enough, you two. Transfer, Luca." The doors closed on Luca. He suddenly felt just a slight flutter of panic in his chest - being so confined like this made him feel like he was in a cell.

"You doing okay, Luca?" asked Jeremy.

"Peachy," he said through gritted teeth. "Now get on with it."

"Scanner, Luca." Luca felt waves cruising down his body and his stomach lurched. He could feel it all. He could feel his body being torn apart, right down to the last strand of DNA, and then reconstructed again. It was by far one of the strangest things he'd ever experienced.

"H-Hey-" In a second, he was wiped from the Earth, and it felt like he'd faded into nothing.

And then suddenly, he was being taken apart all over again, like a toy that needed fixing. And then merged back together again.

As he was about the scream out in pain, suddenly he could see a bright light… then, a desert terrain.

"What the…?" He fell to the ground and lay flat on his face, twitching slightly. Wait a second… what was twitching?

"Oh my god, Luca's a bunny!" cackled Odd, cracking up. Luca blinked and took in his appearance. He was wearing a tight white shirt, black skinny jeans and black combat boots, with… aw, crap. Rabbit ears.

"What the hell is up with this outfit?" he demanded.

"W-Well, uh… I think it focuses on your inner thoughts, kind of?" Jeremy offered, stifling a laugh.

He felt his face flush red. Of all the things, he thought of the cutesy image and nickname Sakura used to give him…

Luca-Pyon.

Even now, he felt an ache in his heart as he remembered her face.

"_Luca-Pyon! Luca-Pyon! Hey, Luca-Pyon, Natsume, listen to this! Hotaru told me a really funny story today, and-"_

"Hey, watch out!" Luca felt himself being dragged out of the way.

"Luca, you almost lost some life points then! You gotta stay focused on Lyoko!" Jeremy warned. Odd was holding into his arm, his eyes widening as they locked gazes.

"H-Hey… Why do I feel… So god damn attracted to you…?" Odd's face was beginning to flush. Luca snapped into action.

"God damn it, Jeremy, why are my Animal Pheromones affecting Odd?" he yelled. Jeremy shrugged.

"I-I don't know! I-It might be because he has a cat-like form on Lyoko…? I know less about Alices then you do, Luca, so you tell me," Jeremy stammered.

"Well, basically, if he's affected by my pheromones I can practically hypnotise him if I wanted to - but in any case, the least I can do is communicate, which is exactly what I need for dealing with a nut job like him."

"You can really do something like that? That's incredible," Jeremy said, surprised. "If you can guide him through the whole mission, I'll give you serious brownie points."

"I'm not gonna manipulate him!" snapped Luca. He glanced over at Odd, who was still in a lovesick trance. "I'm just gonna use this to my advantage and get him to listen to what I'm saying."

"Look, I don't know if you guys had noticed, but there's a Krab _right_ next to you!" shrieked Aelita. Luca's eyes bugged out as he drank in the sight of the Krab. It was huge.

"Holy shit, we're supposed to fight that?" he whispered.

"Luca! Odd's still dazed, so tell him what to do and just get Aelita to the tower," Jeremy said, voice high and panicky. Luca grabbed Odd's shoulders, causing him to quiver and the blush on his cheeks to deepen.

"L-Luca… You're holding my shoulders…" He was starting to grow limp in his arms.

"Dammit… I should've packed Pheromone Guard with me," Luca growled. He shook Odd by the shoulders. "Wake up, you weirdo! Come on, wake up! Listen to me! You gotta stay here and fight that thing, while I take Aelita here to the tower! You got that? Now, calm down, and take that thing to hell!"

"G-Got it," Odd said, still a bit flushed. He turned around and clumsily aimed his fist at the Krab. "Laser Arrow!"

"This is a crisis," Jeremy said, face-palming. "Odd's even clumsier then before thanks to the dumb pheromones!"

"Hey, don't be hard on him, I was a mind-slave once," Luca said defensively. "It's complicated! You're not thinking straight half the time cause you're thinking two completely different things… It's just hard, okay?"

Luca grabbed Aelita's hand and flashed a smile.

"Such a _terribly_ cute girl, Aelita… Now come on. Lets get you to the tower." Aelita's face flushed.

"Hey! Stop seducing Aelita with your pheromones!" Jeremy complained. Luca pulled a face.

"I'm _not_. It only works on animals, you dimwit. Or are you one of the contradicting people that would argue about _humans_ being animals? There's a pheromone specially for people - but that's not _mine_. You don't have to worry about me _stealing_ your _girlfriend_."

"Hey- come on now, Luca, don't be like that. I didn't mean it that way!"

"You people, all you people without Alices, you're all the same!" Luca yelled, pulling Aelita along with him as they marched south towards the tower. "You think that just cause I have one Alice means I have all of them. That I'm going to use it for my own selfish reasons… You know, you sound just like Leo! I let him manipulate me, and it almost cost my friends their lives. He said that us Alices were all the same, that we were _curses_, and that we needed to overthrow the Academy we trained in. It was awful, dammit!" He started to pant, out of breath after storming forward for so long. "…This is why I didn't wanna come here. Once the truth got out, everyone would think the wrong things and I'd _never _be treated right. Back at Alice Academy, it was _normal _for Alices to walk around campus! You guys were the _outcasts_!"

"Luca," Aelita said gently, squeezing his hand. "Jeremy was rash. He jumped to a conclusion, which was wrong, and something he should work on." Just as Jeremy was about to correct her, she continued. "Likewise."

"…Huh?"

"You guys are more alike then you think. You're both eager to point the finger, and it's not right so it should be stopped. Please, promise me you guys will work on that."

Waving, Aelita entered the tower.

_AE_

_LI_

_TA._

_AELITA._

_CO_

_DE:_

_CODE:_

_LYO_

_KO_

_LYOKO._

"Good job, Aelita. Now, lets get you guys back home."

XXX

"So, let me get this straight… I was in love with _that_ guy?" Odd demanded, pointing at Luca. Jeremy nodded.

"But don't stress. It was just my Alice at work," Luca explained. Odd breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank god. I have way too many girls to date in the future to start looking at guys!"

"So… Why didn't you just tell us you had an Alice?" Aelita asked. "You gave me a bit of a shock the way you had Odd wrapped round your pinkie."

"Stop making it sound like we were getting it on," snapped Odd.

"I wonder how Yumi's gonna react… She still doesn't know about Luca, does she?" murmured Jeremy. Ulrich cracked a smile.

"Speak of the devil. Hey, Yumi, what's up?" Yumi approached them, smiling.

"Not much. I'm sorry I didn't see you guys around today, I was in the library… I had an exam today so I was freaking out a bit over it. What'd I miss?"

"Well… Jeremy's got a new roommate, who's also an Alice transfer student from Japan, he's now a part of our team."

"Damn bastard," Odd frowned sulkily.

"What's _his_ problem?" Yumi asked.

"Luca seduced Odd in Lyoko," Ulrich said, summing up the traumatic experience in as few words as possible. Yumi stared.

"I-I-It wasn't like that!" spluttered Odd. "It was his god damn Animal Pheromone Alice that brainwashed me! I was a victim. _A victim_!"

"You say that, but…" They all began to laugh. When they eased up a bit, Yumi held out her hand in front of Luca.

"Fellow Asian girl, Yumi Ishiyama. It's nice to meet you… Hajimemashite, Nogi Luca." Luca gazed for a moment at her outstretched hand, then turned his attention to her face, turned up into a smile.

_She… She reminds me of Natsume._

He took her hand and shook it, squeezing it tightly for comfort.

"Hajimemashite… Ishiyama Yumi."

{ Chapter One - Enter The Pilot / End }


	2. Enter Luca Nogi

Summary: Jeremy was never told about the rich family he used to live next door to before he moved eight years ago. Not even that the prestigious family housed an Alice. Now this boy has to transfer to Kadic, where things might get a bit too virtual for his liking. Luca Nogi is way in over his head. What does Lyoko have in store for him?

**A/N: This fic is rated T for Teen, due to darker themes, harsher violence, slightly more mature themes, bad language, and fake men slash. You've been warned beforehand (:**

**PS. This takes place sometime in the Second Season, so don't expect things to get extremely exciting with the whole Aelita growing wings and their outfits getting upgraded and stuff - they might, but they might not. Just warning you so you're not disappointed.**

Story until now: Luca's been accepted into the group, despite the gang knowing nothing of his mysterious past. Now it's time for the truth to come out - from both ends of the story.

**Code Lyoko Again**

Chapter 2 - Enter Luca Nogi

"_Luca-Pyon~ Natsume~"_

_Luca Nogi looked up from his rabbit, whom he had been stroking for the past five minutes. Mikan Sakura approached him, smiling, and holding something to her chest._

"_Hey~ Guess - what - day - it - is - to - day~"_

"_The day your mouth zips up and stays shut?" Natsume replied. She scowled._

"_No! It's Valentine's Day!" She plastered a smile on her face again. "And, as you know, on Valentines Day, a girl has to give out chocolates, right?" She turned to Luca first._

"_S-Sakura, you made chocolates?" She nodded._

"_Yup! I worked all last night on them!" She handed him a small wrapped chocolate in a box - not too big, but enough to make Luca's heart pound. "This one's for you!"_

"_Really?"_

"_Yeah! Of course!" She then turned to Natsume._

"_I got one for you too, Natsume!" Natsume opened an eye lazily._

"_Remind me again why I would want to eat a chocolate made by you, Ugly."_

"_Wha-! You fox!" she yelled. "Hmph! I don't know why I even bothered to make chocolates for you! But here, take it, in case you see some common sense and accept what I was nice enough to give you." She threw the chocolate box and it hit him on the side of his face. He sat up, the box falling to the desk. His face was dark with silent fury._

"_W-Who else did you make chocolates for, Sakura?" Luca asked quickly, trying to keep the peace. Mikan turned to him, smiling._

"_All of my friends! You, Natsume, Hotaru, Inchou, Koko, Kitsuneme, Permy, Anna, Nonoko, Mochu… Oh, and Hotaru and Mr Narumi as well!"_

_She began to laugh._

"_Luca-Pyon, this Valentines Day has been really fun, hasn't it? Next year, you and Natsume and Permy won't be with us… You'll be in the middle school division with Otonashi and Tsubasa and Misaki. But I won't give up on you guys!"_

"_Sakura…"_

"_This year… it's gone by fast, huh?" She giggled and gave him a hug. "But Luca-Pyon, I'm glad I could share it with you guys. And you're happy too, right?"_

Luca opened his eyes and sat up groggily. He couldn't shake off this feeling of wanting to go home, even though he kept telling himself that feeling this way was only making it harder to let go and move on.

Alice Academy had been his home for too long. It felt bizarre to just throw all his memories away like they were old newspapers.

It had been two days since Luca Nogi had transferred, and he had to say, it wasn't as bad as he'd thought it would be.

They were all so nice… When he'd first arrived at Alice Academy everyone had been intimidating and cruel.

Here, his new friends were nice. Really different to everyone he used to know. But they were friends.

This morning, he woke up in the one place he'd never pictured himself sleeping in… The bedroom of Jeremy Belpois.

Jeremy was sleeping at his computer, causing Luca to crack a smile. One thing he had learned from his short stay at Kadic.

Jeremy had a habit of using the keyboard as his pillow.

"Wake up, sunshine," he grinned, shaking Jeremy's shoulder gently. Jeremy stirred uneasily.

"Unghh…" he groaned. Luca patted his shoulder.

"Doing another all-nighter?" Luca guessed. "Are you researching Kyoko?"

"It's _Lyoko_, actually," murmured Jeremy, stretching. "And yeah, something like that… I'm trying to give my friend an antidote."

Luca frowned.

"Which friend? And what do you mean, antidote?"

"Long story short, if we shut down Lyoko, Aelita might disappear forever." Luca stared at him.

"What? But…" He sat down on his bed. "Man, this is crazy. Would anyone mind explaining to me?" He looked Jeremy in the eyes. "It's been two days since I arrived here and travelled to Lyoko. You guys haven't told me anything."

"…All right. We'll tell you everything at lunch."

XXX

When they got down to the breakfast table, Ulrich was sat watching Odd devour a banana with a disturbed look on his face.

"What's up?" Luca asked, taking a seat.

"Odd… All he's eaten this morning is three bananas," Ulrich filled them in, taking a sip of his apple juice.

"Just bananas? And only three?" Jeremy looked surprised.

"I'm taking a diet," Odd commented, unpeeling his fourth. "It's the way I roll, Jeremy. I can't help feeling that I've been over-eating lately."

"Lately?" Ulrich remarked. "You've been over-eating your whole life." Odd shot him a look.

"Ha ha, very funny. I have a theory - if I stop eating as much, my metabolism will slow down and I'll stop appearing so svelte. Do you get it? I'm tired of people saying I'm scrawny!"

"Who said that recently to put you on edge?" Jeremy asked, taking a bite of his croissant.

"Jim! Last night he caught me sneaking out of my room to go the bathroom and he said that I needed to watch my step, otherwise I'd trip right over my own scrawny ankles! I mean, what brought that on? Honestly, Jim is so freaking unfair to me!"

"Don't let it get you down," Jeremy said, patting his friend's arm. "I don't think your theory's gonna work anyway, Odd. It'll just make you even thinner." Odd let his mouth hang open.

"So I've been eating like a mouse all morning for _nothing_?" he whined. "That's so unfair!"

"Well, there's still some food left there, if you wanna grab some more," Luca offered. Odd grinned and punched the air.

"All right! I'll be _right _back. No one steal my seat while I'm gone~"

He stood up, grabbed his tray and wandered over to the breakfast queue again.

"You know, sometimes I wish he'd get a stomach ache, just to teach him that eating isn't everything in life," Ulrich remarked. Luca laughed.

"I think that'd only make him noisier," he replied. Ulrich cracked a smile.

"You know, Luca… I think we're gonna get along _great_."

XXX

"So, is Ishiyama… Is Ishiyama a year above us?" Luca asked Jeremy. He nodded.

"Yeah… We met Yumi when we first discovered Lyoko cause she and Ulrich had a bit of a feud going on then, and… Well, you get the picture. We met, and she just happened to crop up there at the time. From then on, we all became fast friends."

"That's another thing you haven't told me yet… How did you guys all meet? When did the supercomputer get discovered? By who? Who was the first to travel to Lyoko, and how'd you fight those… those _things_?"

"Like I said… I'll explain it all at lunch."

The gang were in their Chemistry class, led by Miss Hertz, who was in a particularly evil mood today, snapping at even the slightest disturbance. And theirs was no exception.

"If you two feel that there's something to talk about, why not let the whole class know, hmm? Then maybe once it's out of your system you can concentrate on the lesson!"

"S-Sorry, Miss," Luca stammered, face flushing. Angrily, she sniffed and turned around to continue writing on the whiteboard. Jeremy began writing down something on a piece of paper torn from his jotter. Luca looked over and saw a load of symbols he didn't understand.

"What's that?" he whispered.

"Last night I was researching Precognition - I promised Odd I'd take a look at it," Jeremy explained. "I think I might've cracked a formula that I can program into his Lyoko form to give him the "Future-Flash" power again - with added bonuses I'll explain to you when I break the news to the others at lunch. So I'm just writing it down so I have some definite notes on the formula to bring into the factory after school."

"Sounds like you're a real brainbox," grinned Luca. Jeremy flushed a bit.

"Well, you're not exactly an idiot either," he replied. "I mean, at Alice Academy they used to teach you guys way more advanced stuff, right? You should be really bright."

"I am… But still, I'm terrible at the kind of stuff you thrive off, like all this computer techy-junk. Makes no sense to my puny mind."

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Jeremy said, cracking a smile.

"Well, maybe I'm being a bit harsh on myself, but whatever… You've learnt a bit about me today, but there's still so much I need to learn about you guys." He turned away and stared out of the window. "…I don't feel like I fit in with you guys just yet. You all seem to get each other so well, and I'm still struggling to understand the slang cause it's been so long since I've spoken in French. I really don't think I'll be able to be the friend you guys want, after all."

Jeremy turned round and watched the empty space next to Luca's chair, feeling sad. It wasn't fair that Luca felt so defeated, and he wished there could be some way to help him.

"…Luca… It's only been two days. You might not realise it right now, but something clicked between you and us guys when you entered the factory. I was still uncertain of what to do at the time - should I let you in cause you were my roommate and you'd discover the truth sooner or later anyway, or should I keep pretending and let you try and live a normal life? But the second you walked through those doors, I knew letting you into our group would be the right thing to do." Luca stared.

"… You know, I never imagined in a million years that I'd have friends like you guys - My friends back at Alice Academy were nothing like you all are." He smiled faintly. "You know, I have a best friend… He knows me better then anyone."

"Really?" Jeremy cracked a smile. "That's great. My best friend's Aelita - I know how it feels. It feels great to have someone understand you the way they do."

"Uh huh. His name's Natsume… Natsume Hyuuga. I met him when I was eight, before I came to Alice Academy, when I was going to a normal school and trying to be a normal kid. Nothing worked though. My whole life I was running away from the government or kidnappers, or people trying to take me away from my family for experiments. My mom stopped them, though. She was amazing… But she locked me up, like a bird in a cage. I was smothered with her love and protection, so I had no freedom and couldn't have fun like a normal kid. Then I met Natsume, and things started to look up. He had a little sister, and her name's Aoi. She became blind, though… She lost her sight because of a mistake. A mistake someone did, but we couldn't save her, me and Natsume… We couldn't protect her from the mistakes." His face grew sad.

"Luca…" Jeremy bit his lip, slightly afraid at how vulnerable Luca suddenly looked. Luca shook his head, and continued.

"No, no, things weren't all bad… I met a lot of people once we got there. Fun people, that made us change for the better. We'd lost hope, you know. But there was a girl that picked us up off the ground and helped us stand up again." Jeremy cracked a smile.

"Ahh, a girl. I can see where this is going."

"Shut up. Anyway, this girl… Her name's Sakura. Well, her proper name's Mikan Sakura, but I could never call her that. She was so nice…" For a moment his eyes glazed over, as if he was reminiscing a thousand memories. Then he snapped back to attention. "But she disappeared. Someone took her away from us. And that same person is the one who sent me here, to Kadic. I didn't want to come here, you know - I had to be there for Natsume, cause he's sick and he's not gonna get better. And the person who took me away from Alice Academy… He could hurt Natsume. I couldn't let him do that, but I knew he'd only hurt him more if I didn't go. So… I had to. I had to come here."

His knuckles were white, and trembling slightly.

"I didn't want to go, Jeremy. I didn't want to leave Natsume in the hands of people who could hurt him. But I had to. I knew what they were capable of… They hurt me too. But I had to leave him by himself, so that there was the off chance that they left him alone. I couldn't throw that chance back in his face. If I did… Then…" He stopped abruptly, feeling a growing sense of horror as tears built up in his eyes.

Jeremy squeezed his arm.

"Luca… I don't know your situation, obviously, but… I think you should just try your best and keep on the good side of this person, because if you do… Maybe you'll get to see Natsume again."

"It's very disrespectful to call someone by their first name in Japan," he said quietly. Jeremy tensed.

"I-I'm so-"

"But," Luca interrupted. "But… I think, if Natsume was here… He wouldn't mind it."

Jeremy smiled, feeling suddenly happy.

"I'm sure that he knows how you feel, Luca. He'd want you to stop stressing out over the person who's making you unhappy, and he'd want you to have fun again. I know that can't be easy… But, I'll try my best to help you out, Luca. I'll help you have fun with us, and we'll try to become friends you can depend on. And one day, maybe you'll share the full story with all of us."

XXX

"Okay," Luca said, sitting down at their table next to Odd, who was eating cheesy pasta. Jeremy took a seat opposite, beside Ulrich. "Tell me about Ryoko."

"It's _Lyoko_," Ulrich corrected him. Luca shrugged.

"See? I know even less then you thought I did. So elaborate."

"Elaborate?" Odd grinned. "Dude, are you from the eighteen-hundreds or something?" Luca frowned.

"Shut up. I'm still learning the slang cause it's been almost nine years since I last lived in France."

"Okay, so, you wanted to know about Lyoko?" Jeremy put in quickly, to keep the fight from continuing. Luca nodded.

"Yeah. I've told you about my life, Jeremy. So tell me about all of yours. This secret little life you guys lead."

"You make it sound so cool," laughed Jeremy. "Well, it was about a year ago now. I was checking out the abandoned factory by the school and happened to find a few tunnels leading to the school. I found it strange, so I thought I'd look around some more. Then, I found the Supercomputer, and started it up. Aelita appeared right before my eyes!" Luca leaned forward.

"She was in the computer?" He breathed. Jeremy nodded and continued the story.

"Yeah, she'd lost all her memories and didn't know what was going on, or why she was there. She couldn't even remember her name. I didn't know what to do, so I named her Maya and promised I'd help her out. But before I knew it, Xana started launching attacks."

"Around the same time I transferred into their class and started hanging around with Ulrich because he's my roommate," Odd added, sticking a piece of pasta in his mouth. "He wasn't enjoying my company, to tell you the truth. I don't see why, really, I mean, I was awesome, even back then…"

"It's cause you had a rubbish hairstyle back then," Ulrich remarked.

"Really? I don't think I ever saw his old hairstyle," Yumi grinned, approaching their table with a tray. She took a seat beside Ulrich.

"You guys are all making fun of me," frowned Odd, stabbing another piece of pasta with his fork. "Well, whatever. My old hairstyle aside. Those two," he pointed first to Ulrich, then let his finger stray to Jeremy, "used me as a guinea-pig." Jeremy looked sheepish, while Ulrich shook his head.

"Nu-uh," he corrected. "We didn't use _you_. At least, it wasn't intentional. We were _originally_ going to demonstrate on Kiwi."

"They were going to sacrifice my dog to Lyoko!" Odd wailed. He was soon distracted from his misery by his pasta and continued eating. "And Sissi followed me, cause Ulrich missed a date."

"Since when were you and Sissi dating?" Yumi asked, raising an eyebrow. Odd stifled a laugh.

"Ohoho, looks like someone's getting a little J-E-A-L-O-U-S," he snickered. Ulrich threw him a dirty look.

"We weren't ever dating," he assured her. "Sissi was in love with me, but the feelings have never been mutual."

"Pff- like Yumi believes that," Odd grinned inwardly. Luca stared, transfixed at Yumi.

"I-Ishiyama… How did you meet everyone here?" he asked. "I mean, you're in the year above us… right?"

"Y-You don't have to be so formal with me, Luca," she smiled. "You can just call me Yumi. And… Well, I met Ulrich at the gym. We were taking a martial arts class, and… well, that's how we met, really." She tapped her chin in thought. "Now that I think about it, I don't think I had any friends before I met everyone else. We all just became close after stopping one of Xana's attempts to affect the real world, and since then we've all gotten on great."

"I see," he said, nodding. He let a small smile cross his face.

"Aww, Luca, you look so cute when you smile," grinned Odd, slapping him on the back. Luca blushed.

"Hey, shut up!" he retorted.

"Anyway," Jeremy continued. "Xana's attacks were stronger then us, so we had to form this team to stop him from invading Earth and roaming free. Unfortunately for a whole year we couldn't get Aelita out of Lyoko, because we couldn't find a way to de-virtualize her here on Earth. But, after a while, I found the right program… And that's why Aelita's here today."

"Um, actually, Einstein… Aelita's not here," Odd said. They looked around. Aelita was no where in sight.

"Hmm… That's weird. Have any of you seen her?"

"Um, Jim wanted to talk to her about the state of her room, or something," Ulrich said, frowning. "At least, from what I heard. I was just leaving _my_ room when I heard Jim breathing down her neck."

"I hope he doesn't give her a hard time," Jeremy sighed. Luca nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, it must suck to know your girlfriend's being yelled at." Jeremy blushed bright red.

"Wh-What? Aelita's not my girlfriend!" he spluttered. Luca looked confused.

"…Really? I'm not trying to judge or anything, but you guys kind of had that vibe-"

"No no no no no," Jeremy said quickly, recovering. "No, there's nothing going on between Aelita and I. Honestly."

"I don't know, Einstein," Odd grinned, milking Jeremy's discomfort. "You and Aelita have really been feeling the heat lately. I wouldn't be surprised if you guys were engaged already!" Jeremy's face flushed so much it looked like someone had struck a match next to him.

"Okay, guys, stop teasing him," Ulrich said, raising an eyebrow. "Lets just all agree that Jeremy and Aelita haven't confessed yet and leave it at that."

"What is there to confess?" cried Jeremy, burying his head in his hands. "I knew it! Even Ulrich has turned against me!"

"Leave him alone," laughed Yumi. "Stop taking the piss. It's not every day you get to see romance blossom the way we are…"

As the group continued to laugh and joke, Luca's mind only became more curious.

_These people are… treating me great. They're being kind to me, laughing with me, talking to me… But that's just the catch. This is all too perfect._

Luca felt dread in the pit of his stomach.

_What does the Elementary School Bastard have in store for me…?_

XXX

"Hey, Aelita!" Jeremy approached Aelita, who was walking down the hallway with a distraught look on her face. She looked up.

"Oh, hey, Jeremy." She tried for a smile, but couldn't wipe the scowl off her face.

"What was Jim saying?" he asked. She shrugged.

"He told me that I needed to keep my room in a better state then it was… Said even though I was allegedly related to Odd doesn't mean I have to arrange my room the way he does, and so on… it just ticked me off a bit. I mean, how are you supposed to express yourself if you're trapped in a world where following rules is the key to survival? It sucks." He patted her shoulder.

"Don't worry about it, Aelita. Following the rules is just like a number given to us on a register. The state of our room doesn't make us any better or worse then the next person. Just remember that the next time Jim makes a crude remark. Okay?"

She gave him a small smile.

"'Kay."

"Now, during Chemistry I managed to jot down a formula I think I can program into Odd's system to give him the precognition again. I want to run by it after school, although the others probably have other plans… Do you wanna come." She nodded.

"S-Sure!" He glanced at her.

"Hey, you're acting a little weird, Aelita… are you feeling okay?"

"Y-Yeah. Just daydreaming," she replied quickly. He frowned.

"Well, if you're sure…"

"Of course I'm sure!" she straightened up. "Now, lets go grab some lunch. I'm starving. Odd hasn't taken my share, has he?"

"Not as far as I know - But I came in after him so I'm not sure." Jeremy cracked a smile. "Well, I'm off to my room again. They're at the usual table."

"'Kay. Thanks!" She waved to him and made her way to the cafeteria.

Luca waved as she wandered over to their table with a tray of pasta.

"Hey there," Yumi said as Aelita sat down beside her.

"Hey," Aelita replied, giving Yumi a small smile.

"Was Jim hard on you?" Ulrich asked. She shook her head.

"Not too bad… I'm just tired. Tired of having to follow the rules and be the good little girl all the time." Yumi patted her shoulder.

"You're really down," she said, surprised. "Are you all right?"

"Not really," Aelita admitted dully. "But I will be. I just feel kinda depressed."

"Depressed is a strong word," Ulrich said. "Probably more monotonous then depressed."

"Nu-uh," she sighed. "Depressed. I'm sick of everything today." She rested her head on the tabletop, shoving her pasta in front of her. Odd immediately stole a piece of pasta from her plate with his fork.

"It's just short-term boredom," he said through a mouthful of pasta. "Don't let it get you down. It'll blow over by tomorrow morning and everything will be just fine."

"I sure hope so," she said. She eyed her pasta. "Strange. I thought I had more then that."

"Guess your eyes were deceiving you," Odd grinned quickly, covering up the disappearance of half of her meal.

"So, how long have you been on Earth, Aelita?" Luca asked, trying to ease the tension.

"About a month or two," she said thoughtfully. "It was hard to get used to things at first, but I got the hang of everything quickly so it's alright now."

"I'm glad," he said, smiling. He looked down and clasped his hands together. "…You know, everybody… I know that I don't really fit in with you guys. You all click so well, and I haven't got to that point yet where I can let myself go and smile in front of all of you whole-heartedly. But I hope, one day, I can forget about everything and just be friends with you all."

He closed his eyes, feeling her within him.

"_Luca-Pyon! Luca-Pyon! Come see this! I drew this picture today! I know it's not very good… but it's me and my grandpa. I worked hard on it, so I really hope I can show it to him one day…"_

"_It's beautiful, Sakura. I mean it." Genuinely._

"_Oh, it is _not_! You're just saying that to be nice!"_

"_No, I really do mean it - I'm sure your grandfather will love it."_

"Hey! That was really mushy, Rabbit-Boy!" grinned Odd, slapping him on the back. "Man, of all the stuff to spew… that was pretty poetic, considering you're always convincing me you don't know the language well."

"I never said that! I said I don't understand the _street-lingo _well. And what do you mean, _Rabbit-Boy_? What the hell's up with that?"

"Well, I believe you have _rabbit_ ears on Lyoko, so what better-fitting name then Rabbit-Boy?"

"How about my real name? Luca Nogi. It's short! It's not that hard!" He threw his hands up in the air. "It's not like I haven't been called that before… Or at least, something along those lines! I'm not about to tell you what it is, before you open your mouth, cause then you'll just laugh at me and call me it all the time like all you people do! It's guys like you that really make me sick!" He stopped ranting, huffing. The others were giving him strange looks.

"You slipped into Japanese just then," Yumi stated. He felt his face burn red. "I understood most of what you said though." She paused. "Do you really think that?" He felt guilt build up in his chest.

"O-Of course not… I was just frustrated. I'm sorry…" He put a hand to his forehead. "It's just… I keep freaking out. All my friends are in trouble, and I… I just want to go back to Japan." She squeezed his arm. When she spoke, it was in Japanese.

"I obviously don't know your situation, Luca, but what I do know is that if your friends are really your friends… they won't want you to feel so frustrated and upset. They'll want you to try and forget the bad times, and remember the good times instead. So you can't let them down, in that sense. You have to remember, they'll want you to be happy."

He words really broke into Luca's heart. Her voice was softer as she spoke in her mother-spoken language, a lot more relaxed then her harsh French tone. And what she said was almost enough to make him bawl. He knew what she meant, and was genuinely touched that she was keeping it private by speaking in their most comfortable and secret language. But he couldn't believe them, no matter how much he wanted to. She had no idea what hell he'd been through only months before. None of them did, not even Jeremy. He couldn't comprehend that, and neither could she. He'd seen the rough side of hell he didn't want to face ever again if he could help it.

"I'm sorry. I can't." He clenched his fists. "I can't… I can't relax and have fun and forget about the fact that Natsume's all alone, possibly even being _hurt_ by the Elementary School Principal…!"

It all came tumbling out then, in stammering, distraught French, urgent, shaking Japanese, and even at some parts in a mixture of both in the same sentences.

About how he'd been kept under surveillance since childhood, how he'd met Natsume Hyuuga, the first Alice he'd ever encountered, and his funny and adorable sister Aoi and their father with his gentle smile, how Aoi had fallen ill and set the village alight, how everyone had cruelly blamed Natsume and they'd left for Alice Academy… How he'd met a funny and kind girl named Mikan Sakura who'd let his worries go, and her cool and calm friend Hotaru Imai, and all their other friends in Class B. How the war had destroyed them, and how now he was struggling to pick up the pieces.

The whole time the gang listened, only understanding half of what he was saying, but Yumi most of all was listening intently, eyes on him the entire time. When he finished, their faces were riddled with entirely different expressions.

Jeremy had a troubled look on his face, as he knew all about this from history class, and didn't want Luca to feel more uncomfortable then he already was. After seeing the boy looking so defeated, a new light had flickered inside of him. He'd seen that look a long time ago, when his parents had been fighting. Although they got along fine now, his childhood had been full of angry cries as his parents fought in front of him, and those were memories he'd rather forget. He clenched his fists. Luca wasn't the fighting kind, clearly.

Ulrich seemed thoughtful. In all this time, he'd never thought Luca's life would have been quite so tragic - he knew the guy had come with some anger, from the way he'd lashed out at them during his first time to Lyoko… but he didn't expect _that_. He ran his fingers through his hair, inhaling deeply. This would take time to soak in, he knew that much.

Aelita seemed deeply saddened. She herself had never known what it would be like, having being created as a program for Lyoko, to lose people you truly care about, but she knew it must hurt a lot. She'd seen the way in films the characters would be heart-broken as they lost their loved ones, and could only imagine the kind of pain Luca must've been going through. And yet, he was so kind that all he seemed to care about was how much his best friend Natsume would be hurting. She bit her lip, keeping her gaze steady so tears wouldn't fill her eyes. The _last _thing Luca needed were people crying over him.

Odd, on the other hand, merely looked sceptical. If all that Luca was saying was true… He went to a school for elite kids. Why the heck would a guy who hated his guts stretch so far as to send him all the way over to France and have him board as _Kadic_? It all seemed way too far-fetched to him. It would make more sense if the shifty guy fired Luca out of a cannon and forgot about him, rather then enroll him at a completely normal school that could threaten to expose all his plans… There was something fishy about this agreement the guy had made with Luca, he knew that much.

And Yumi was digging her fingernails into the palms of her hands, shaking her head softly, murmuring Japanese quietly, face full of disbelief, horror… pity. She ducked her head, trembling in her seat. Although his words were muddled, shaky and stumbling from one language to another, his sad past revealed in this light was enough to make her eyes well up with tears. She could feel his pain, burning deep into his chest like a wildfire, tearing through his system until he looked up and glared. His eyes were glazed over with unshed tears.

"Don't feel sorry for me," he snarled, wiping his eyes with his blazer sleeve. "I don't _need_ pity. I need to reclaim victory."

"Good, cause I don't feel sorry for you." All eyes swung towards Odd. As Luca's face hardened, Odd lifted his hands in surrender. "Hey, hey, take it easy, tiger. I'm not pitying you… cause you know something?"

"What?" scowled Luca.

"You're really _dumb_, you know that?" Luca gritted his teeth, eyes flashing dangerously.

"What… What the _hell_ did you say?" he growled.

"Because," Odd continued, ignoring Luca as he murmured irritated Japanese under his breath, "You're completely _useless_! You should've been even more alert then. Don't you realise that guy wanted you to go? He's got something planned." Odd folded his arms, brushing off the dumbstruck stares from the rest of the gang. "I don't know how, cause if you ask me this guy sounds like a dumbass, but somehow he knows about Xana. Someone must've told him before we all met. And now, that guy is after something Xana has… Why else would he choose Kadic Academy to send you to, of all places? I've seen better. This one's practically falling to pieces, and yet he chose this out of all the elite schools in France. He's taking advantage of you!"

Jeremy sat back, hand on his chin.

"You know, Odd, I think you may be onto something… But I don't suppose we can jump to any conclusions until we're absolutely sure what that guy's true intentions are."

"Fine. We'll leave it for now, though," Luca said, sighing. "I'm pretty sure lunch break will end any minute now, and we _still_ have a big plate of pasta in front of us."

XXX

"So, you'll need special training on Lyoko to become as skilled as we are," Odd told him on their way to Maths. "And a lot of it, too, cause we're currently _awesome_." Luca rolled his eyes.

"And modest, too, it would seem," he retorted. Odd shrugged.

"I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a bragger. But whatever. I didn't offer you help to have you throw attitude in my face. I offered you help so you'd take it and actually be useful."

"I already am. I mean, I had you in the palm of my hand on the last mission," Luca teased. "If I did experiments to see if my pheromones worked on different types of monsters, think of how useful I could be if I had them under my control! I could command them to stop attacking us, or better yet, get them destroying each other!" Odd looked puzzled.

"But wouldn't that backfire? I thought Xana's monsters were robots," he said quizzically. Luca frowned.

"I thought they were animals - really strange animals, admittedly - but still, animals." Odd stuck his bottom lip out and shook his head, crossing his arms.

"Nu-uh. Robots." Luca's eyes narrowed.

"Animals."

"_Robots_."

"_Animals_."

"_Robots_!"

"_Animals_!"

"ROBOTS."

"ANIMALS."

"RO-!"

"What are you guys arguing about?" Jeremy asked wearily. Luca sighed.

"We're debating whether Xana's monsters are robots or animals," he explained.

"Hmm… Well, technically, they're programmed into Lyoko, so they're more like little bugs."

"See? They're animals," Luca said triumphantly. Odd crossed his arms over his chest crossly.

"Well, actually, by bugs I didn't necessarily mean it in that way-"

"Aha! I still have a chance!" cried Odd, stabbing a finger in Luca's direction. Luca scowled.

"Whatever. I'm going on ahead, I don't wanna be late for maths."

As Luca walked away, Odd grinned deviously.

"He really can't stand me, can he?" he laughed. Jeremy sighed.

"Maybe it's because you always seem to be trying to wind him up, or because you disagree to everything he's said so far and don't believe all he's saying?" he suggested. Odd shrugged.

"Hey, it's not my fault he sounds like an excuse Xana would've cooked up," he said breezily. "I'm just staying on my toes. Animal Instinct, you know?"

"Right. Cause that totally makes sense against the guy with the Animal Pheromone," Jeremy pointed out. Odd nodded vigorously.

"Exactly! For all I know, Xana could be trying to lure me in and kidnap me by seducing me with Luca's Animal Pheromones of doom! And you expect me to not be at least cautious?"

"Of course I don't expect you to let your guard down if you individually feel uncomfortable," Jeremy sighed. "But at least try and act a little friendlier to him until you actually have proof that he's being controlled by Xana. You don't know yet, so think of how bad you'll feel if he really can be trusted." Odd lifted up his hands in mock surrender.

"Okay, okay, Einstein, this pep talk has spiralled out of control, clearly. I know my place, so I'm not going to go around accusing him of being Xana. I'm just not gonna let my guard down around him until I know for a fact he's under Xana's control."

"Fine. Just remember - we all trust him."

As they entered their classroom, Luca took a seat next to Aelita, while Jeremy sat next to Ulrich and Odd sat on his own by the window.

Luca could feel the glare of Odd's stare on the back of his head as he bent over his maths book. Something about that guy seemed really off to him. He didn't seem to like Luca at all, but he couldn't put a finger on what he'd done wrong. He sighed inwardly as the teacher began explaining their lesson plan and tuned in on the lesson.

XXX

The end of the day drew near, and Yumi's class had been quite a confusing one at least. For one thing, she was pretty sure William Dunbar, the class bad boy, had been staring at her for quite some time, and she was beginning to grow suspicious. What was so fascinating about her? Did she have something on her face? Some pasta stain from lunch on her shirt?

She couldn't help but seriously wonder if he was beginning to figure out something was wrong with the way she kept abruptly leaving classes to thwart Xana attacks, and how she distanced herself from the rest of the class - if they got sucked into the drama, it'd be all her fault and she'd be unable to stop it.

As she bent over her history book, unable to concentrate, she felt the burn of William's gaze on her back and couldn't help but feel slightly violated. What was so interesting about her back, huh? Why not her face? Was he one of those creeps that would be interested in her body just because she didn't flash or where tight clothing on a daily basis?

She shot a questioning look at him, wondering if he was going to smirk, or look ashamed, or just glare back at her. But he did neither. He flashed a smile and then turned his attention back to the lesson. She frowned, unsure of whether to be grateful or confused.

What was this guy's deal, huh?

Suddenly, her phone buzzed. Checking to see no one had noticed, she hurriedly checked her text messages.

One message received from: Ulrich.

She frowned. Was there a Xana attack she needed to help take care of? Gingerly, she opened up the message.

_Happy Thursday._

She sighed inwardly. Ulrich had created a habit of texting her during lesson time if he had nothing better to do. And, being in Maths, she could only imagine how bored he'd actually be.

She quickly typed a text back.

_Happy Thursday yourself._

Pressing the send button, she let a small smile cross her face. She'd been feeling troubled that entire lesson with the way William kept staring at her, but with that one text message it was like her troubles all washed away.

A few minutes later, her phone vibrated again.

_Happy Thursday to you~_

She smirked, before tapping in a reply.

_Pfft, dork._

XXX

When Ulrich opened the door to his room, the first thing he caught sight of was Luca hugging Kiwi. As soon as Luca realised Ulrich was there he dropped Kiwi fast and stood up, face flushed.

"Ah, um, well, y-you see-!" He hung his head. "…I'm sorry. I just can't help myself… And, well, since you guys know my secret already, I figured I didn't have to be as sneaky about it. So…"

"Nah, don't worry about it," Ulrich said, sitting down on his bed. "I won't tell." Looking slightly more relieved, Luca sat next to him.

"Hey, Ulrich… Yumi's your best friend, right?" he found himself asking. Ulrich looked surprised but nodded.

"Yeah, that's right. Why?"

"Has there ever been a time when you wanna help her out but she keeps pushing you away?" He blurted out. He bit his lip, instantly regretting asking. Ulrich blinked.

"…Huh?"

"S-Sorry! Just forget I asked," Luca replied quickly, blushing. Ulrich sighed and sat back.

"Well, there's been quite a few times… But I'll say with all honesty that it's not enough to stop me trying."

"You mean that?" Luca asked. Ulrich nodded.

"Yeah… I do. Honestly." Luca sighed and flopped back.

"I suppose it's different though, what with Yumi being a girl, and all that."

"Nothing wrong with that, right?" Ulrich said, a little too brightly.

"Well, I figured that you guys liked each other… you know, in that way," Luca said. Ulrich blushed to the roots of his hair.

"A-Are you kidding me?" he cried. "You're actually joking, right? Me and Yumi… We're not in _that way_!"

"Okay, okay," Luca said, smiling. "I know how you feel. I had a friend like that, too."

"Sakuna-something, right?" Ulrich frowned. "I think you've mentioned that name once or twice."

"Sakura," Luca corrected. "Her name's Sakura… Mikan Sakura. Yeah, she was my friend. I think I liked her more then just that as well." He put his hands behind his head and sighed. "She went missing, though. No one can say where she went - but we all have a pretty good idea of who took her away."

"This guy who sent you here, right?" Ulrich frowned. "Your history… it really sucks. I mean, you've been to hell and back." Luca shrugged.

"That might be true - but I've had a lot of good times as well, and I think that's a lot more important."

"Oh yeah? Tell me." Luca smiled softly.

"Well, there were a lot of celebrations at Alice Academy… There still are, of course," he explained hurriedly. "Well, you get the picture… We had a huge festival, and every year, Sakura would ask to dance with me - I accepted, of course, and each time we shared that one dance…" His eyes glazed over with memories. "She always wanted to dance with Natsume, as well… but he always said that he'd rather drop dead." He stifled a laugh. "Natsume… was always Sakura's true love interest, I know that much… but they never got the chance to tell each other how they really felt before she disappeared. I know he regretted it, which was why he started to distance himself from the rest of us. We only wanted to help - but he was broken. He couldn't listen to us anymore. He could only hear her voice…" He bit back tears and carried on. "After a while, things began to fall apart. They all pushed him too hard… made him go on too many missions… He could die any day now."

Ulrich stared, a cold feeling setting in his chest.

"…What do you mean, _die_? He's only a kid, our age…" He stared at his hands in shock. Luca sighed sadly.

"Well, with Alices… there are different shapes, life-forms… There's a type that disappears when you grow up, and there's a type that you have your whole life, but it isn't very powerful. There's also a type that's very powerful, but you can only use it in short amounts - that was Sakura's Alice shape. And Natsume's… well, his is the final Alice shape, the Life-Shortening one. He has as much power as he desires, and can use it at any time, but it's killing him every time he uses it. That's one of the reasons I really didn't want to leave him all alone. I just… I didn't want it to be goodbye forever."

Ulrich rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Look, Luca… I swear, Natsume will be absolutely fine. He will. I promise. You'll make the guy pulling your strings happy, he'll take you back, and you'll get to be with him again. I know it."

Luca let a tear stray down his cheek, but his face stretched into the biggest grin he'd conjured since arriving at Kadic.

"So do I," he said, stretching out on the bed. "One day I'll see Natsume again. And Sakura, too. She'll find her way back to us. And when she does, the first thing I'm going to do is play Cupid and hook them up. Life will get a lot easier from there."

"But you still like this girl, right?" Ulrich asked. "Why are you trying to get her together with another guy?"

"Cause I'm like you." He sat up. "Ulrich, although you keep denying it, I can kind of tell that you like Yumi. It's the same with me and Sakura, except I didn't sit idly by. I went out, and tried to show her I loved her. But if, after continuously trying, you know she won't love you back… the best thing is for her to be happy, right? Especially with your best friend. Y'know?"

Ulrich paused.

"I get what you're saying, sure… But me and Yumi - we aren't anything special, you know that?"

Luca cracked a smile and slapped Ulrich's back.

"Of course I do, buddy."

{ Chapter Two - Enter Luca Nogi / End }


End file.
